Tag: COVID-19 restrictions

Arizona Father of Five Arrested Twice for Protesting COVID-19 Restrictions Continues His Efforts to Protect Children

Rachel Alexander

Kelly Walker, a journalist and father of five in Tucson, is expanding his efforts to protect children from bad policies in schools despite being arrested and prosecuted after one school pushed back. Since the bad experience, he’s built a platform of advocacy for parents and children harmed by school policies at Real Freedom Talk. He now produces videos about abuses in schools and appears on major talk shows to discuss his experiences and expose what is happening in Tucson schools.

Walker said what prompted his activism was observing the increase in mental health problems among children due to the COVID-19 lockdowns. A student committed suicide near his home, and the suicide rate among children in Pima County increased 30 percent. A nearby school admitted they had locked students in closets and forgotten about them. He said parents from the community came to his former coffee shop, Viva Coffee House, and asked him if he could do something about it.

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State Representative Nguyen’s ‘Glenn Martin Act’ Aims to Require Hospitals to Allow Daily In-Person Visitation

Neil Jones

Arizona State Rep. Quang Nguyen’s (R-AZ-01) “Glenn Martin Act,” which aims to require hospitals to allow daily in-person visitation, became law on Monday with Gov. Doug Ducey’s (R) signature.

“Some of the restrictive visitation policies put in place by facilities during the pandemic had consequences far beyond that of protecting patient health,” Nguyen said in a press release. “Patients were separated from their families, clergy, and others for long periods. That can be detrimental to a patient’s mental and physical health and is especially devastating in an end-of-life situation.”

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Democrat Arizona Secretary of State and Gubernatorial Candidate Katie Hobbs Praises Biden for Removing Title 42 Restrictions at the Border

Rachel Alexander
Katie Hobbs

While many leading Democrats, including both of Arizona’s U.S. Senators, Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema, are upset with the Biden administration’s decision to end the Title 42 COVID-19 restrictions on U.S. borders, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs praised the decision. The Title 42 order, issued by the Centers for Disease Control in March 2020 under the Trump administration, has been used by Customs and Border Protection to prevent 1.7 million migrants from entering the country. They are either sent back to Mexico or on flights to other countries.

When asked by 3TV about the change and how it would affect border security, Hobbs said, “Title 42 should not be a substitute for that. As governor, I will work to, with the federal government, make sure that Arizonans are secure, they need to put more resources and securing the border. We need more resources to address the influx of migrants coming to the border.” 

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Trucker PAC Launches Fund to Support Protests Against U.S. COVID-19 Restrictions

Arizona Sun Times Staff

A political action committee is funding a series of trucker protests against COVD-19 restrictions in the U.S., mirroring efforts by Canadian truckers to lift the country’s vaccine mandates and rules.

The Great American Patriot Project (GAPP) launched a campaign Wednesday intended to organize and fund several truck convoys to begin in early March across the United States.

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Arizona Attorney General Demands GoFundMe Preserve Documents Related to Removal of Freedom Convoy Fundraiser

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Arizona AG Mark Brnovich

Republican Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s office sent a letter to crowdfunding site GoFundMe on Monday requesting the company preserve documents related to its deletion of a fundraiser supporting a protest against Canadian COVID-19 restrictions.

The letter, addressed to GoFundMe general counsel Kim Wilford, questioned whether GoFundMe violated Arizona laws relating to “fraud, deception, and unfair treatment” when it deleted the “Freedom Convoy 2022” fundraiser, a donation initiative intended to support individuals currently protesting Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for truck drivers and other coronavirus restrictions. Brnovich’s office demanded the company preserve all documents related to the fundraisers’ removal.

“GoFundMe is hereby on notice to preserve materials of any kind, including but not limited to, all documents, drafts, emails, voicemails, text or communication app messages of any kind, and social media communications relating in any way and all times to the Freedom Convoy 2022 fundraiser,” wrote Joseph Sciarrotta, Jr., civil litigation division chief.

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State Sen. Kelly Townsend Announces Congressional Run in Arizona’s Open New 6th District Seat

Rachel Alexander

State Sen. Kelly Townsend (R-Apache Junction) announced she is running for Arizona’s newly redrawn 6th District Congressional seat, which is an open seat due to Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick declining to run for reelection. The sprawling southeast Arizona rural district runs from the U.S.-Mexico border to the Mogollon Rim and the New Mexico border to Casa Grande. Townsend lives in Apache Junction, in the newly drawn CD 5, about 60 miles from CD 6, but there is no requirement for her to live in the district she runs in, only that she live within the state.

Townsend told Capitol Media Services, “Anybody who knows me knows that my heart has been down in the southern part of the state anyway. That’s where I go for leisure, and that’s where I go to work.” Townsend filed a complaint last year with Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich about Tucson’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. After Brnovich issued an opinion declaring that the mandate was illegal, the city paused it.

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Latest Research Chronicles the Impact of COVID Lockdowns on Children

Admin

A growing body of academic research is chronicling the toll that pandemic lockdowns imposed on children, warning that the mental and social anguish the policies caused outweigh the health protections.

The “overall impact of COVID-19 restrictions on the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents is likely to be severe,” an Oxford University professor warned in a recent analysis.

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California Ordered to Pay $2 Million in Legal Fees to Church that Violated Coronavirus Restrictions

Arizona Sun Times Staff
People holding hands in air at church worship service

After a lengthy court battle, the government of the state of California backed down in its efforts to enforce coronavirus restrictions on a church that continued hosting in-person worship services, and has now agreed in a settlement to pay the church’s $2 million worth of legal fees, Breitbart reports.

When the state repeatedly attempted to enforce strict capacity limits, mask mandates, and other “social distancing” requirements on the San Diego-based Pentecostal church, the church’s lawyers filed suit with the United States Supreme Court, winning all three suits. This ultimately led to lawyers on behalf of the state of California agreeing to the settlement, which was approved by a federal judge.

Responding to the settlement, an attorney with the Thomas More Society, a legal group that represents churches facing suppression of their First Amendment rights, pointed out that while businesses such as Costco were limited to 50 percent capacity, while churches were forced to stay as low as 25 percent, and sometimes even lower.

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South Carolina, Montana to Stop Providing Pandemic-Related Welfare

Arizona Sun Times Staff
"Come in, we're open" business sign

The states of South Carolina and Montana have both decided in recent days to put an end to their handouts of federal unemployment benefits as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, in an effort to encourage residents to return to the workforce, as per CNN.

Montana Governor Greg Gianforte (R-Mont.) said in his announcement that “incentives matter, and the vast expansion of federal unemployment benefits is now doing more harm than good. We need to incentivize Montanans to return to the workforce.” Instead, Governor Gianforte announced that the state government will be providing $1,200 checks as bonuses to every citizen who returns to work, using the state’s share of the recent $1.9 trillion stimulus package to pay for it.

In South Carolina, Governor Henry McMaster (R-S.C.) announced on Thursday that the state would be ending their share of federal unemployment benefits, since “what was intended to be a short-term financial assistance for the vulnerable and displaced during the height of the pandemic has turned into a dangerous federal entitlement, incentivizing and paying workers to stay at home rather than encouraging them to return to the workplace.”

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Ron DeSantis Signs Bill Scrapping All of Florida’s Covid Restrictions

Arizona Sun Times Staff
Gov. DeSantis discussing COVID-19 bill.

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order Wednesday scrapping all COVID-19 restrictions throughout the state and an accompanying bill that limits localities’ ability to enforce emergency precautions.

“I think that’s the evidence-based thing to do,” DeSantis said during a press conference Tuesday announcing the executive order. “I think folks are saying they need to be policing people at this point, if you’re saying that, then you’re really saying you don’t believe in the vaccines.”

DeSantis signed SB 2006, which says that any emergency orders can last no longer than six weeks. It gives him the authority to overrule cities that adopt restrictions deemed too harsh or unnecessary, and gives city and county commissions the power to overrule mayors.

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